Let it Be

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

I’m moving away from thinking. Not that thinking isn’t useful but, rather, that it tends to take up too much space in my brain and limits my ability to perceive. The problem with out of balance thinking is that it feeds “stories” and makes the ego stronger (I’m right and you’re wrong, or they’re wrong). We need a balance and I find balance by focusing on this moment right now–and that’s the only time I feel truly happy and sane.  

When I roll out my thinking cap out to evaluate our political situation I realize that there is nothing I or anyone can do. So the emphasis has to be on being healthy, happy and sane until such time that opportunities arise. We aren’t in a place, collectively, where political activism is of much use. I feel a kind of hush is settling on us as a society or maybe it’s just summer. But I’ve felt this for some time.

It is pretty obvious that there are no social mechanisms that will fundamentally change anything or solve problems that appear to be pressing. Not only that but there seems little interest either in the American people as a whole or the progressive/left forces to really move towards real change. We here are kind of on the fringes of political thinking and we need to be in this for the long haul because no change is indicated.

In the meantime we need to relax, breathe, work out, stay sharp, be present, do those practices that keep us whole. For me that means just practicing being in this moment at all times because it is always this moment and it is where I want to live and it is out of this that effective action can be taken when the time is right. I learned this, way back when in Aikido class but did not understand it very well until recently.

I think this focus on the present moment does bring us closer to the essence of life and all life forms. It brings a feeling of joy and love that comes spontaneously when we realize that our little lives and elaborate stories are really like candles in the sun. What we lack, as a culture, is a sense of connection to each other and the whole fabric of creation. This is why we lack compassion in our collective life and even personal life. And I think what we talk about here is a compassionate politics. This compassionate politics can only be strong if it is based on a direct experience of this connectedness and this only happens when we are present to this moment and not thinking about this moment or about our lives or our problems and concerns. Paradoxically, I honestly believe just letting things be in the sense I described may be our most powerful political act. Pure being in other words, like Faith (which is actually the same thing) can move mountains.

Om Shanti.